Transform your chaos into cosmos

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Once upon a time, the airwaves were flooded with the next magic pill to make people lose weight. People bought them. People fell for the nonsense…I was one of them.

After many years of riding that roller coaster, it has finally become apparent to the masses that those gimmicks are just that.

So what do you need to achieve?

You need the magic potion that I have for you. Pay careful attention. I am going to give you the recipe that you need to succeed. Not just at weight loss, but at life.

Ready?

Got your pen?

Paper?

Here we go:

You need the following:

Belief

Love

Intention

Vision

Brew those things together and you have the winning combination of ingredients required to make the most of your life.

Belief in yourself. Love of yourself. Soulful intention. And your mind’s eye view of you doing what you do.

That’s it. No pills. No scams. No silly gimmicks. Listening to yourself and loving yourself leads you to success in every aspect of your life. Your body, mind and soul know what you need. All you have to do is listen and obey.

Easy, huh?

If it isn’t, we’ll talk about why it isn’t as easy as it sounds next time.

And in case you are a bald eagle hovering over this site, reading…fitness isn’t about the numbers 🙂

Drop me a line and let me know what key ingredient you are missing from your Success Recipe. Thanks for hanging out and reading my wall…let’s get together on Twitter and Facebook, too!

When we start on a journey, without a destination in mind, we find ourselves lost. Any activity we undertake is that journey. By seeing what we want in our mind’s eye, we see the changes that we need to make so we can make our goals our realities.

Map it out

Just as we would map out our stops and routes on a road trip, we have to map out our writing journeys, our parenting trips, or even our fitness adventures. Imprinting the visual image of our accomplishments imprints our maps in our heads. Carrying this imprint internalizes our intention, as well!

Imprint your vision

When we visualize to materialize, our intentions are internalized and the Law of Attraction is put to work automatically. We know that intentions have to come from the heart, otherwise they are mere words soon forgotten. Setting the image in our minds of our end result and what we need to do to get there makes it second nature. We will then act the way that is necessary to bring us success.

If we want to be successful writers, we have to envision ourselves in all of our glory. We can visualize ourselves in that life and what we are doing, how we are acting, and how we handle our business. The same goes for any occupation or goal. Suppose we want to be super fit and healthy. We have to visualize ourselves as such. We have to see ourselves making decisions that lead to accomplishing that goal.

Live that life

Use those visualizations and imprints to guide your decisions in taking steps toward your goals. If you visualize yourself as a successful entrepreneur, refer to your visualized results and ask yourself is this decision one that your successful self would make? With fitness, we ask ourselves before we delve into that pint of ice cream if it will help achieve our super fit visualization of us.

What are your goals? See yourself living them. How do you act? What do you differently in that image than you do now?

Image Credit: nicolasnova via Flickr

Come and hang out with me on Twitter and Facebook…let’s achieve our goals together!

As writers, we need to move. We have to pry ourselves from the comfort of our laptops and force ourselves to move in order to stay healthy. Since becoming an official “writer,” I have seen my thighs turn to mush. Not a pretty sight. I was once fit and tone (ok, that was BEFORE the kids), but I have gotten even mushier since the winter.

I challenge myself and you to face the challenges with me that come up as we move through the motions of our days struggling to create bodies of work that people want to share with us.

Our projects (be they writing, raising our children, whatever they are) and life, in general, are more fun when we are in the best shape we can be to enjoy them.

Ordering our cosmos is about bringing together all the pieces of our lives into one focus…let’s enjoy our lives and all of their parts by making ourselves healthy and ENJOYING it together!

Join my Facebook and Twitter communities and take this challenge with me! Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog to get updates in your inbox…IF, of course, you want to continue this journey together!

The Law of Attraction is simple: Like attracts like. Whether good or bad.

If we want to attract good, the decision is ultimately ours.

What kind of like are you attracting?

How we talk is a manifestation of what we think. How we act is a manifestation of how we talk. Why not think, talk, and act successfully? (Success is relative, of course, but I love Ralph Waldo Emerson’s definition to the left 🙂 )

Belief is the basis for what we think.

If we believe that we are rock stars, we think, talk, and act as rock stars. If we believe that we are unworthy of status, we elicit behaviors that sabotage our attempts at success.

We are manifestations of our beliefs.

That’s great as long as we believe in the true Soul that we are and not in our own skewed vision of Self.

Does Self stand in our way?

With writing, I often find my Self throwing up resistance (in the form of procrastination by spending too much time on Twitter, my Google Reader, Facebook, etc 🙂 ) at every peek at success(i.e. finishing a piece or making headway on the novel)…my Self is my roadblock.

If beliefs are aligned with the reality of Soul, then Self will not get in the way.

Can we change our beliefs? Yes, by changing what we say and reversing the order of the manifestations mentioned above.

Is it easy?

No. It isn’t easy, but if we are MINDFUL, if we are living INTENTIONally , then we set a course to rewire our hard drives to think in ways that bring about positive change and attract the results we want.

We have to define Self (who are we?). Connect our dots(bring all of our roles to an intersecting point). Connect to Other (family, friends, etc), in order to complete the image of our reality that we want to bring about.

We all have strengths. We all have gifts. We have to listen to Soul and recognize those strengths and gifts. Use positive Self Talk that we may or may not hear consciously (oftentimes, our actions manifest our beliefs more loudly than our words do, but that is another post 🙂 ).

Listen to Soul. Define who you are. Consider your reality. Create it.

Transform your chaos and order your cosmos by seeing Self for its beauty, defining the reality you want, and setting your INTENTION for positive bounty through the Law of Attraction.

What are your Soul gifts? How can you set your intention to make your reality the best reality it can be?

After returning from a week away, which translated to a week of eating out and running on empty, this body is tired and worn down. Brain functionality is minimal. Mindful living escapes me. Proof that food is fuel.

We are all raised hearing, “You are what you eat.” Yet, there is little of that remembered or practiced. In case we need a mini lesson on cell biology (really trying to suppress the teacher here, but…), our bodies are made of cells which are made of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and water. All the things we find in food. Why is that? *scratches head* Um, duh. Well, because food is what our body uses to make new cells and repair old cells and it is what is converted into energy for us to move and grow. It is our power source. I know you know this, so forgive the reiteration, please. 🙂

Did I mention aspartame, caffeine, or sodium nitrite in that short list of what our bodies need? No. Nowhere is it said that we need preservatives and additives to function. In fact, these chemicals SLOW down your body’s efficiency making you feel sluggish and droopy. This is Chemical Body.

However, when you pump that super efficient energy machine with whole, raw, healthful food and water, then you have just transformed into the finely tuned Chevy Camaro Wholesome Body instead of the broken down ’57 Chevy Chemical Body. And water? Did I mention water? You know that clear stuff that runs from our filtered faucets? That is GOLD. Be mindful the next time you lift your glass and FEEL the water as it becomes part of you.

It all comes down to: The choice is ours. It is up to us to choose to feel good. To choose to feel like the Hot Rod Chevy Camaro. (Speaking of Hot Rod, did you happen to know that good nutrition boosts our energy, boosts our immune systems, and boosts our libido? Yes, that too.) But, we can’t wait until we are older to start taking care of ourselves. We have to start now and if you happen to be raising children, it is of the utmost importance that they are allowed this clean start.

Raw, whole, healthful foods and water are the keys to good health and good nutrition, the prime components of transforming chaos into cosmos. We are here to connect our dots. To bring together our Facets of Self. Without smoothly running machines and engines, we cannot hear clearly what Soul is trying to tell us in order to connect these planes together. When Mind is crystal and Body is well, Soul rejoices and shows you the way to its peace.

Listen to your body. Feed and nurture it as though it were an infant. Mindfulness requires clarity of thought. Make super nutritional choices and transform chaos into cosmos.

As I write to you this evening, I am blessed enough to be sitting outside listening to the cricket’s chirp, the cars pass, and feeling the breeze blow. I am mindful of the deeply satisfying place that I am in. I have slowed down enough to see it and to appreciate it. (This is a rare occasion, by the way:).) That is what mindfulness is all about. It is about slowing down and paying attention.

Mindfulness is a deeply rooted tradition adapted from Buddhism. When you run through life on auto-pilot, as most of us do, it is impossible to give the attention to Self that is needed. Part of bringing order to a chaotic mind or life is about being aware. Aware of Self and Needs of Self. You cannot bring about order if you do not know the nature of the chaos or the ends that you intend to accomplish.

As a mother, as a father, as a daughter, as a son, as a person, we all have roles to play and ordering chaos means you have to know what makes you happy and brings you joy and living that life congruent to others. However, once you know what makes you happy, you have to slow down to enjoy it. To appreciate it. To feel the full effect of it.

As you become aware in those moments, start to recognize the other, maybe not so dramatic, moments. When you rush through breakfast, you miss out not only a better means of digestion, but you miss out on the details. You don’t relish them. Life flies by.

When we are younger, we wish to be older and think that our time will never come. When we are older, we wish to be young again and waste the years that we do have left in a dream state rather than a here and now state. When you miss the now, you miss the how. How was that breakfast? How was that coffee break? Wow, it went by so fast you don’t even know if you enjoyed it or not. You missed the now and the how.

You didn’t see it because you were in a hurry; living mindlessly not mindfully. You were not in the now. The moment you have now is the only moment that you have. Live it and appreciate the beauty in it and in every moment by being mindful.

Be mindful of your feelings and your actions. Be mindful of your surroundings. Be mindful of your intention. When you slow down and live mindfully, you appreciate all that you have been given because you see things in a new light. You see beauty in the mundane. Your soul is satisfied because it partakes in your life rather than sitting on the sidelines.

Maybe you jumped out of bed this morning and jumped right to it; without even thinking about what you were doing. Turn off the auto-pilot and turn on the mindfulness. Go through your day seeing each moment for its true value. Your soul will delight in its new eyes and will fill you with satisfaction; thereby bringing order to one facet of your chaos.

At what times are you living mindfully? What can you do to bring that mindfulness to the rest of your life? I love to hear from you! Feel free to answer those questions or leave comments below! Thank you for visiting my corner of the web!

If you don’t know me yet, I am tenacious. Maybe too much so, but that is another story. Anywho, I continue to stand atop my soapbox to delve a little deeper into crushing the bane of our existence and allowing ourselves to flourish.

In the last episode, I touched on how we like to use time as a REASON (see, I didn’t say “excuse”) for our drive thru visits, calls to the pizza delivery, or serving premade mess. Now, you know what is next…your wallet.

Is it cheaper??

Let’s talk about how much money you just spent at the drive to make yourself less healthy. A meal these days is anywhere between $4(the uber low quality and usually a kid’s meal) and $6 (the one hiding under the title “healthy choice” or its the supersized behemoth that comes with a bucket of transfat and enough liquid to drown a horse). Multiply it times 4 (or more if you have more than the average 2.5 kids) and you have a minimum of $16 that you spent to make yourself less healthy that will accumulate into medical bills later on. However, is it likely that you ONLY spent $16? Doubtful. You probably didn’t spend less that $20. And for that you could have made a meal and had leftovers for second or you could have had enough for two different meals. If we are talking convenience, then see how much you could have spent on veggies to take with you instead.

Now, this is taking into consideration the cheap drive thrus like the national chains that I won’t mention, but that you are already friends with. What about the high-end ones that pretend to have higher quality foods? I guarantee that your home cooked meals are still healthier than the healthiest chains. Your food is fresh. Your food has not been sitting on the shelf or in the refrigerator for weeks, full of preservatives to make them last that long. Assuming, of course, that you are shopping the perimeter of your grocery for the bulk of your items and NOT buying premade/prepackaged/frozen/canned foods. You aren’t, right?? Please say you aren’t.

Yet, let’s go back to the all important bottom line: Your wallet.

Yes, your grocery bill is going to go up, but your eat-out bill is going to go down. Shop the farmer’s and side markets for the fresh fruits and veggies of the season. Look for the sales. Be diligent. Your health and your children’s health is at stake. Your wallet is going to have to dish out dollars for meds, doctor visits, and hospital stays by staying in the drive thru line.

When we buy in-season fruits and veggies, we spend less than we would if were buying imported out of season produce. Or if you are feeling REALLY energetic, try growing your own! Talk about savings.

I said the bottom line was your wallet, but it really isn’t.

The bottom line is your health. When you ingest chemicals in the form of preservatives, additives, or pesticides, you are assimilating them into who you are. You’ve always heard that you are what you eat, right? Well, no more true statement can describe what is going on inside you when you when it comes to food…so why not make yourself and your family priority and take the steps that you need to take in order to build the best you and the best family that you can? Your bodies, brains, and babes will thank you for it.

What do you believe you spend on non-homemade food? I would love to hear your argument for/against freshly prepared meals in the comments below!